Save the Pubs! The Whales Are All Right.

Here’s a classic case of local interests pitted against national administrative despots: some Irish locals want to moderate the drunk driving laws, because the practical effect they have is to keep older rural citizens isolated in their homes at night, killing the pubs. Losing one’s driver’s license in a rural area in modern times radically demotes one’s quality of life, and since less than a pint is enough to put one at risk of that under newer laws, the elders stay home, no doubt for some high-quality telly and internet-browsing. All part of a broader trend, some say, of declining Irish “sociability.”

(That’s aging Gen-X once-hipster talk for What Would Husker Du Do?) Husker Du were an 80s punk band, and one of my favorite lyrics of theirs was:

Safety is a big disguise, as they divide and conquer!

Bob Mould and co. probably never fully admitted to themselves that the “they” in these cases tended far more often than not to be liberals . Our Porchers still can’t really admit that, since it would point to well more than a “dime’s difference” existing between the two parties.

But whoever they might be, Carey wouldn’t have had anyone put up with their administrative fiat (or national legislative power) at the expense of being able, with one’s fellow community members, to collectively govern one’s own affairs. (BTW, Mr. President, that’s “collective action” in the real sense of the word. See, Aristotle, “Ruling and Being Ruled in Turn”)

So yeah, I’m with these Irish localists 100%. Carve out a local exception to the national law. That’s what follows from real Porcherism. (It also means we let not a few localities do very dumb things . . . i.e., in the hope of more township liberty and community, we’d accept that there will regrettably be more drunk drivers out there, and worse, more petty bullying town councils dotting the landscape.)

And make no mistake, we need real Porcherism, i.e., real local government empowerment, in America too, probably even on this particular issue.